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I'm sorry to say that although I'd heard Rubinstein's recording of 68/4 numerous times, I'd never paid enough attention to that piece to realize that it had an extra section compared to the editions I had! Now I have the National Edition, so I have the version Rubinstein played. Which has been around since I was 5. Sheesh.

Spending time with "my" harpsichord has got me wondering again whether Chopin ever played Scarlatti, and if so, what he thought of his work. To the best of my knowledge, we have no written record of Chopin giving any opinions about that. There is only a reference in the fake Delfina letters, as far as I know. I have no direct information on this myself, either. Jeff, or anyone?

This week's 'Building a Library' slot on BBC Radio 3 featured Chopin's Mazurkas. For those that don't know it, 'Building a Library' is a weekly feature on Radio 3's 'CD Review' programme in which one of their regular panel of critics, musicians and academics gives a personal survey of the available recordings of a particular work, and recommendations for your library. The great thing about it is that it is available as a podcast, and that the podcasts stay up on the website indefinitely.

This week the quirky but wonderful David Owen Norris surveyed recordings of the Mazurkas. Here's the link

A couple of days ago I took a Duncan dance class, that is, based on the work of Isadora Duncan, one of the inventors of modern dance. Most of the music was Chopin, with a little Schubert, Schumann and Mozart thrown in. Isadora particularly used the mazurkas, I'm told, though not with actual mazurka steps. We danced to a mazurka or two and a couple of waltzes, plus 25/1, something it might not have occurred to me to choreograph. The teacher provided filmy tunics to go over our tank tops, so that we looked rather like a collection of animated Greek statues, though perhaps less well-proportioned.

It was SO hard to stand still and listen to what we were supposed to do next while mazurkas and waltzes were playing!

I was just searching for recordings of it on YouTube, and just clicked on it. The username was "ClassicalUploads" so I thought it might be a big name. Turns out that I was wrong, but it's still amazing!

So I was practicing 27/1, and my mother came along and said, "That's a pretty piece. Who wrote it?" (*facepalm*) Of course she got it in one guess. "The left hand part is diabolical," I told her. "It doesn't sound very hard," she replied. When I showed her what one actually has to do to play it, she was suitably awed, but isn't it nicer when we can play something that has a zillion notes but isn't actually very demanding, and everyone is so impressed?

Did I tell you I had my first harpsichord lesson in over 30 years last week? It was wonderful. I was afraid the teacher would see me as somehow The Enemy or something since I spend so much time with Romantic-era piano music, but it wasn't like that at all. In fact, most of what she was asking me do to and most of her description of harpsichord technique was amazingly like what my piano teacher has been trying to convey for the past few days. Except for having to get myself to play much more non-legato, I don't have to make much of a brain-shift at all. Everything seems to be working together beautifully. (*sigh of relief*)

It used to puzzle me that Chopin would create phrases out of such odd numbers of notes, 13 or 27 or 69.5 or sometimes what seemed like approximately 10,000, against 3 or whatever. Eventually it was made clear to me that each phrase is a shape, rather like a ribbon that bends along the page and through the ear, and those seemingly arbitrary quantities of notes are exactly as many as are needed to fill up the shape.

Here, also, is Chappell's take on a concept we know Chopin was concerned with in teaching:

Playing since age 21 (September 2010) and loving it more every day."You can play better than BachMach2." - Mark_CCurrently Butchering:Chopin Ballade no 1 in G minor Op.23My Piano Diary: http://www.youtube.com/sirsardonic♪ > $

Mark_C
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Joined: Nov 2009
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New York

Yes and no.

IMO he was a very mixed bag.But I realize I speak from a somewhat weak position when I say that.

Anyway....among other things, he was giving one of our very fine pianists input/criticism that I felt could have been destructive if it hadn't been countered -- including because he ignored how little time there was before an upcoming performance, and also that he just wasn't giving credit for how excellent the playing was.

I think Angelina might know him, but I might be mistaken. She was the first who knew he had voluntarily gone and they are exactly the same age and from Canada, so they might have met at some contest or masterclass.

Yes, He is everywhere. I ran across this odd little snippet in a detective story. A pianist in the story made some reference to Liszt as once having introduced Chopin as being from another planet. Anyone recognize that reference? (Something from Liszt's Life of Chopin perhaps?)

I had found it a couple of years ago while looking for more information about Delfina Potocka. It's written in a histrionic, Romantic tone that compares to, say, Berlioz' letters. Glad we don't write like that anymore.

Playing since age 21 (September 2010) and loving it more every day."You can play better than BachMach2." - Mark_CCurrently Butchering:Chopin Ballade no 1 in G minor Op.23My Piano Diary: http://www.youtube.com/sirsardonic♪ > $